Match report by Mr King:
The 1st XV were scheduled to play the final of their Lancashire Plate competition on Wednesday 2nd March at Liverpool St Helens Rugby Club but this was postponed due to waterlogged pitches and the match had to be arranged for Wednesday 23rd March. A coin toss was made and Bolton were the winners meaning that the final would now be played at Bolton School. The squad went into the final having not played a competitive fixture in 6 weeks but confidence and motivation was high as 11 of the squad would be playing their final fixture in a Merchant Taylors’ shirt.
The lack of match practice was clear to see in the first half, silly mistakes, a lack of discipline and inaccuracy resulted in Bolton having the majority of possession in the opening 20 minutes. Luckily for Merchants, the Bolton side could only turn this possession into one penalty kick resulting in a 3-0 lead with only 10 season. Merchants finally started to enjoy more possession towards the end of the first half which resulted in Head Boy, Tom Cope running a fantastic line off Max Hodkinson and he ran straight through the defence to score the side’s first try which was converted by Charlie Harrocks allowing Merchants to have a slender 7 points to 3 at half-time.
Accuracy, discipline and speeding up the tempo of the game were the half-time instructions and the boys took these on board almost immediately when the game resumed. Bolton secured a penalty from the kick off and were successful to bring the scores to 7-6 but it was clear to see that Merchants were now controlling the tempo of the game and were gaining a lot more possession. From a penalty the side kicked to the corner were they set up a driving lineout which resulted in captain Will Gilby controlling the ball at the back of the maul to touch down for the sides 2nd try which was once again converted by Harrocks and gave the side a more comfortable 14-6 lead. Another well created and well deserved score by Charlie Harrocks gave the team a 19-6 lead and the game started to look a lot more comfortable for the team which allowed the side to make a few substitutions to give Year 12 and Year 11 boys experience of playing on this type of stage.
Tom Barker-Weinberger, one of the Year 11 boys side stepped his way to the try line which was also converted to give the team a 26-6 lead moving into the final 5 minutes of the game. All credit to the Bolton side who battled the whole way to the final whistle and deservedly scored a consolation try right on the final whistle which was celebrated by the large number of home supporters who were out to support their team. This left the final score of the game 26-13 in favour of Merchant Taylors who were crowned Lancashire Plate Winners 2015-2016. It was a great way to end the season and to end school rugby for 11 of the senior boys who will all leave for university in the summer. Mr King would like to thank the school leavers for their services to rugby and wish them every success in the future. For the Year 11 and 12 boys, training starts immediately after the Easter holidays in preparation for their upcoming tour to Hong Kong and Australia in July 2016.
Squad – R.Behl, J.Gorman, T.Shorrock, M.Millen, B.Kelly, T.Cope, H.May, W.Gilby, M.Hodkinson, J.Owen, C.Leece, C.Harrocks, L.Jones, J.Rawlinson, B.Aitchison, J.Boyce, M.Fletcher, M.Zaki, C.Millen, T.Barker-Weinberger, G.Poli
1st XV Lancashire Plate Winners
MTGS Music Competition
On Tuesday, 22 March the Merchant Taylors’ Girls’ School hosted its 2016 annual Music Competition in front of a full and appreciative audience. Four weeks ago thirty five girls participated in the preliminary auditions from which the final nineteen musicians were chosen. Dr Alberto Sanna – professional violinist, musicologist and music lecturer at Liverpool Hope University was the guest adjudicator. Dr Sanna in his closing remarks commended the girls on their preparation and musicianship, and even went as far to say that some of the performances would surpass the standard of some undergraduates such was the quality!
The winner of the Middle School was Rachel Burnett [saxophone], and the Senior School competition was won by Chloe Jones [flute].
Easter Holiday Club
The children have had fun playing outside, making chalk drawings and baking chocolate plant pot muffins. More photos to come as the week progresses!
Easter Bonnet Parade
The children showed off some outstanding creations on Stanfield’s catwalk at the end of term – well done to the children and to all the helpers at home!
Wendy Hazlehurst Donation of Musical Theatre Books
The Schools’ have an excellent reputation for their musical and dramatic productions and Joint Schools’ Musical Theatre productions are eagerly looked forward to. Through a generous donation from Wendy Hazlehurst, a 1951 leaver, the Girls’ School has been able to purchase some specialist text books on this subject.
Seen here looking at some of the new books are, from left to right:
Charlie Apel, Neve Eyles, Zannamarie Ashton Sophie Miosga and Meghna Singh
Mad Science at Stanfield
This term our Junior Mad Scientists have had lots of fun investigating physics, chemistry and biology topics.
The pupils explored the senses and in particular how the others can affect our sense of taste. We carried out blind taste tests, learned about nutrition and then created our own Jelly Tot sweets.
Another session was centred around light and observing the light spectrum through various lenses. The children used torches and lasers to observe light beams. It was a challenge to work out some of the optical illusions but we had lots of fun making our own periscopes.
In our chemical reactions session we investigated how heat can change materials. We heated sugar and made our own candy floss – delicious! We also created fireworks by burning magnesium, sodium and copper. Our scientists got very messy making their own slime!
The session on electricity was very exciting. We used balloons to create static electricity and used a Van de Graaf generator to observe our hair standing on end! It was quite daunting to hold onto the generator and know the current of electricity was flowing through your body, but our brave scientists all enjoyed the challenge!
Charity Duathlon 2016
Our two Junior Schools and Waterloo Primary took part in a sponsored duathlon last week and raised over £900 for the Good Life Orphanage in Mombasa. Well done to all who participated and thank you to those who sponsored the event.
Year 4 Patterdale Hall Trip – March 2016
Year Patterdale Hall Trip – March 2016
The year 4 class at the Junior Boys’ School, enjoyed an active an fun-filled trip to Patterdale Hall. Here they tried new and interesting challenges such as canoeing, rock climbing and archery. They had an eventful trip, bursting with activities and were able to develop their own skills such as team building.
Amber Becomes Double British Champion
Congratulations to Double British Champion Amber Gregson who won two golds at the WKKC British Championships yesterday and will represent England at the World Championships in Dublin later this year.
We are the new Junior Schools Challenge Quiz North West Champs!
Merchant Taylors’ are the new Junior Schools Challenge Quiz North West Champions, having gone unbeaten against fifteen other schools at Bury Grammar School. With captain Ben Falconer in imperious form throughout and well supported by Marcus Baldwin, Daniel Naguib and George Farrar, the team defeated AKS in the final to lift the trophy for the first time since 2009.